3-0 first inning lead - can’t win & hitting w/ bases loaded
Two nights in a row, Red Sox get out to 3-0 lead in top of the first inning… and lose the game. First, against Livan Hernandez and the Twins, Clay Buchholz and crew can’t get the job done - Sox lose 7-3. Last night, against Jeremy Guthrie and the Orioles, Josh Beckett can’t get the job done - Sox lose 5-4 (I guess I should be encouraged by the fact that at least they scored an additional run in the game… woo-hoo). Buchholz is still young, working some things out… okay, stuff happens. But for Josh Beckett to surrender 11 hits and 5 runs after being staked to the early 3-run lead… very surprising.
Kudos to the Os, as Remy pointed out on the broadcast, it was less an issue of Beckett not having good stuff and more a case of the Orioles just hitting everything he threw up there - specifically Luke Scott. He had three hits, on a change-up, a fastball (3-run HR to give O’s the lead), and a curveball (good one, too - not a hanger, low and biting).
Old friend (and embedded saboteur?) Kevin Millar committed one of the two errors in the first that helped the Sox get that 3-0 lead. In the 7th inning, the Red Sox had men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and the middle of the order coming up - then after Ortiz walked, bases loaded, with 4,5,6 coming up. Should be able to get at *least* one run, likely two to tie - heck, how about a big inning? Yeah… um, no. Manny grounds into the 1-2-3 DP (that’s right, not even a DP in the infield to get a run home) - and *then* we get a fly ball from Mike Lowell (which would’ve been deep enough for a sac fly had it not been the third out of the inning).
Now as I whine here, the Sox do lead the AL in runs scored - and are 7th in team ERA. They now trail the impressive Rays in the AL East - which is no fluke… as anyone who’s watched the Rays can attest: A very good all-around team.
However, it does seem like an inordinate amount of time, the Sox load the bases and get nothing to show for it. Sure enough, they are 10th in the AL in OPS with the bases loaded (657 - 244/302/356) - ahead of only Seattle, Toronto, Baltimore, and KC. (Tied for the AL lead with 5 GIDP - in 53 PA - in those situations is a big part of the reason.) For comparison, the Twins lead the AL in this category at 1141 OPS - 414/417/724. Sure, there are far greater issues facing many teams - but you’d think that a “good team” would do *far* better in bases-loaded situations. I’ve taken to dreading the Sox loading the bases, remindine my wife (likely tuning me out at this point), “Oh great… Sox have the bases loaded - no runs to be scored here.”
I suppose its nothing more than randomness that has them so ineffective in these situations, but its still frustrating… especially when they’re down two runs late in a game with a real chance to at least tie it up… and they can’t even push *one* run across.
Two other notes: Despite leading the AL in runs, they are decidedly average w/ RISP (7th at 764 OPS - 280/368/396) - and w/ RISP and 2 outs (6th at 727 OPS - 234/366/362).
Perhaps all meaningless since you don’t get style points for when or how the runs or scored… all that matters is the total number of runs scored (relative to runs given up, of course - except in the case of Diamondbacks, Arizona - 2007). Still… it’ll be interesting to see if the Sox improve in these categories as the season progresses (i.e. small sample size early in the season) or if it continues all year and ends up hurting them long-term somehow.
Okay, I’m done now.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
And the trend continues. This afternoon, the Sox *again* took a 3-0 lead, but this time in the sixth inning - breaking their string of 3-0, first-inning leads. Still, they managed to blow this game as well - as four pitchers allowed six runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings (the last four runs coming in the bottom of the 7th, after the first two men were retired, and the third *should* have been retired except Pedroia misplayed a ground ball).